In our recent episode on faction building in your TTRPG, we discussed how we design, develop and implement factions in our own games. But, in case you need to develop factions before this week’s game, I decided to break down three specific ways to approach faction building in your own game.
For this article, I’ve used examples from some of my own campaigns to illustrate the approach. Each one is useful in its own right, but some will obviously come with more front-end work than others.
The Tone Setter
This first approach requires the heaviest prep out of the three, but for good reason. If the factions you’re going to introduce will play heavily into the campaign world and subsequent adventures, it’s best to have a solid foundation to work from. I call this approach the Tone Setter because it is doing just that: setting the tone for your campaign.
In the Slaver’s Bay campaign that we’ve talked about in multiple episodes, I started the players off as slaves in a gladiatorial arena. They had been brought to the city of Zaprora, which was the large, and growing, capital of the Aurelian Kingdom. Zaprora had reached this level of influence mainly through their slave trade and gladiatorial spectacles. I had been watching a lot of Spartacus at the time and always liked the Infernal Empire of Cheliax from the Pathfinder system, so I decided to combine the two.
With the players having been brought to this city as slaves meant to become gladiators in one of the training halls, the adventure was going to revolve around this city and the powers that inhabit it for most of the foreseeable future. So, I didn’t want to adlib it.
First, I had to develop the leader and inner circle of this burgeoning imperial power. The head of this entire play, the Domina, Artemesia Aurelia; her Head Advisor, Damianus Faustinio; Head Auger (cleric) Gaius Infernus; her bodyguard Krivnaarax; the Oncoming Storm (a former dragonborn champion of the pits); and the head of her military, Bellator Septimus Antony. Because their ultimate goal was exchanging a kingdom for an empire, this core cast of characters needed to be developed. They would be the main, overarching antagonist for the rest of the campaign.
Having a head to the military meant needing a military, which led to the second faction: The Bellatorem. The military wing of Aurelia would play a large role within the city itself and an even larger role outside the kingdom as the characters began to explore the world. With the Domina and her advisors being the main antagonist, but also relegated to the capital city, the Bellatorem would be the face of the Aurelian Empire in adventures outside the city.
Along with this, I developed the secretive order, the Umbra, that the characters were offered positions in once they proved themselves capable. Along with the Bellatorem, this faction would play a large role outside of the city itself as the operatives were only known to the Domina and her Head Advisor. They would show up consistently as the players explored more of this burgeoning empire.
Thirdly, since this was a city becoming an economic juggernaut, I needed to develop the system by which business would be conducted. This led to developing the Prefects. I divided the city of Zaprora into four sections (ports, commerce/lending, merchants, and mining/logging) each headed by one of the Prefects. Additionally, these Prefects were the ones who held the Keeps (training halls) that competed in the Games. Obviously, this would lead to a level of competition and intrigue between these Prefects in later sessions.
This level of preparation allowed me to set an immersive scene for the players right out of the gates and quickly answer the majority of questions they might ask. By doing this more detailed break-out of the factions and major players within them, I was able to make a more consistent and logical framework that helped me avoid any “Lucas Moments” with a city that would factor heavily into most of the campaign.
The Thumbnail
The second approach I offer is much more open to development once the players interact with it, hence my terming it the Thumbnail.
While I had heavily developed the Domina’s Court, the Bellatorem, and the Prefects within the city of Zaprora, I rough-sketched my version of a Thieves Guild, The Jolly Punks (still one of my favorite names!). In my notes, the Jolly Punks were a “loose network of thieves outside of Zaprora. Very low profile, keep to underground activities so as not to bring attention from The Bellatorem.” That was it. Just an idea of a group that had not chosen sides, but would offer services to the highest bidder.
Several sessions into the campaign, I introduced the infamous Captain Mercer and his ragtag group of highwaymen. The Captain met his tragic end at the hands of DM Thorin’s character, Hannibal (the cannibal). This was it for this large faction that would be operating throughout the campaign: one named leader and a half-dozen faceless bandits. It wasn’t until many sessions later that the players realized this network of thieves worked for both sides.
A second faction that I developed in the same way was The Leonine Order. The thumbnail sketch of them from my notes is of a “secret order attempting to foil plans of Aurelia to turn Kingdom into an Empire. Follow The Strongheart, Aeronden.” The Leonine Order was my play on the Order of the White Lotus – a group that had no developed or named members in the beginning of the game but which I could place notable NPCs into when it was required.
The Thumbnail allows you to set a faction, even an incredibly important faction, in your game world without having to develop the major players within it. This is great for factions that will play an important part in the campaign but not right away. If it’s a faction that serves as the home base, you’re better off doing some of the legwork prior to the game.
The Web of Intrigue
My final approach is actually taken from a short Marvel Super Heroes game I ran for a group of eight players several years ago.
I named the adventure “Hell Hath No Fury,” and it was set in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York and revolved around a new drug that was hitting the streets that unlocked the X-gene in latent mutants. The adventure dealt with the heroes discovering the developers and suppliers of this new drug named Genesis.
Since I already had established factions to play with, as I was setting this within the established Marvel Universe, I could start with a high overview and really develop the differing machinations and goals of the major antagonists. This is a great method if you are playing with established factions (like the Harpers and the Zhentarim in the Forgotten Realms setting) but really want to ramp up the intrigue – hence my naming it the Web of Intrigue.
To start, I wrote various factions involved on a piece of paper – similar to the way a detective might place major suspects on a whiteboard – leaving room between them to draw lines. For my adventure, I listed the Kingpin, the Maggia, and the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Additionally, I broke the Hellfire Club into two separate factions that were also interacting within the Inner Circle, as they were jockeying for position.
Next, I drew lines connecting all of the factions (the web). These lines served as two-way streets to allow me to write the major goals of each faction as they pertained to every other faction (the intrigue). This displayed the interactions in a very concrete way that served my development of the adventure and any roleplay that needed to happen as the players teased out the mystery.
Final Thoughts
Factions are one of the best vehicles to make your campaign world feel more immersive, as well as give you fodder for further adventures within your game. Not only are they the best vehicles, but they are completely necessary, as well. I can’t envision any world where every single being is completely independent of every other – people are going to band together with common purpose – these are your factions.
But as we’ve discussed on previous occasions, DM Prep is absolutely necessary – but you don’t want to waste the time for prep that you have. Factions are an easy place, just like towns and cities, to be drug down into the time sink of prep time. And if your players never get to the point of interacting, or choose not to interact, with some of the factions you’ve spent a lot of time building out, that can be disheartening.
So, look at your campaign world and the game you’re planning on running. What types of factions will be there (or are there in the case of published material)? From there, you can start putting them into one of the three categories: Tone Setter, Thumbnail, or Web of Intrigue. This will help you focus your time and build a world that feels solid, as opposed to only as real as the set of an old western – if you turn it slightly, you see the buildings are completely flat.
Until next time, heroes … LIVE THE ADVENTURE!